Constitutional Law

Judging Firearms Evidence and the Rule 702 Amendments
by Brandon Garrett, Nicholas Scurich, Eric Tucker and Hannah Bloom
Vol. 107 No. 2 (2023) | Generative AI in the CourtsForensic firearms identification involves linking evidence collected from crime scenes — namely, fired cartridge casings and bullets — to a particular firearm. Two assumptions underlie this identification process: First, firearms […]

Plea Bargains: Efficient or Unjust?
by Carissa Byrne Hessick, Jeffrey Bellin, Elana Fogel, Anjelica Hendricks, Erin Blondel and John Flynn
Vol. 107 No. 1 (2023) | Toward Fairer, Quicker, Cheaper LitigationThe vast majority of state and federal cases end in plea bargains. The practice has eased backlogs and may benefit some defendants — but the trade-offs, some say, are too […]

Reforming the Electoral Count Act, Safeguarding the Vote
by David F. Levi, Bob Bauer and Jack L. Goldsmith
Vol. 106 No. 2 (2022) | Losing faith?At the invitation of the leaders of The American Law Institute (ALI), a group of legal experts representing a range of legal and political views has developed a slate of […]

Tightrope Act: Can new FISA court reforms address privacy concerns without impeding anti-terrorism efforts?
by Maj. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. USAF (ret.)
Vol. 99 No. 2 (2015) | The Mass-Tort MDL VortexAlthough the revamping of bulk data-collection practices dominated headlines about the passage of the USA Freedom Act in June, the new law also contained reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court […]

Designing Constitutions for a Lasting Democracy
by Elisabeth Perham and Donald L. Horowitz
Judicature International (2021-22) | An online-only publicationDonald L. Horowitz, a leading expert in constitutional law, talks with Elisabeth Perham about what it takes to craft a successful modern-day constitution.

A Dozen Canons of Statutory and Constitutional Text Construction
by Bryan A. Garner and Antonin Scalia
Vol. 99 No. 2 (2015) | The Mass-Tort MDL VortexSupremacy-of-Text Principle. The words of a governing text are of paramount concern, and what they convey, in their context, is what the text means. Principle of Interrelating Canons. No canon of interpretation […]

Book Review: Madison’s Music
by Melissa Hart
Vol. 100 No. 3 (2016) | Who appointed me god?In Madison’s Music: On Reading the First Amendment, Burt Neuborne, the Inez Milholland Professor of Civil Liberties and the founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, […]

The Future of the U.S. Presidency
by David F. Levi, David Kennedy, Daphna Renan, Jack L. Goldsmith and Terry M. Moe
Vol. 105 No. 1 (2021) | The Courts HeldWhat will be the legacy of the Trump presidency? Was this administration uniquely tumultuous because of Donald Trump’s personality and beliefs? Or are there other external forces or circumstances at […]

Why We Read the Scalia Opinion First
Vol. 101 No. 1 (2017) | Citizen-centered CourtsWriting about Justice Antonin Scalia’s writing is a daunting project indeed. The Justice plainly had a gift that is perhaps better savored than analyzed. As one privileged to be his […]

Foundations of U.S. Federalism
by Lee Rosenthal and Gregory P. Joseph
Vol. 101 No. 1 (2017) | Citizen-centered CourtsWhat precisely is American federalism? In their seminal work on federal jurisdiction, Felix Frankfurter and Wilber Katz allude to a “dynamic struggle” between federal and state power, the ebb and […]